Blue Goose ~ Day 289

March 12, 2015 ~ Boonville, MO to Kansas City, MO

I had seen a Book Sale sign the night before at the library in Boonville and went back to check that out, coming away with seven more books for which I paid $2.75. I finished the first one (The Reader) in a day...a powerful book. I thought I had read it, but finally remembered it was the movie that I saw. There is almost no venue more appealing to me than a library. The small town libraries are especially endearing and promising places. I thought of Pathfinder in Baldwin and how Maria and Richard got much more than books there.

I then drove northwest to the historic town of Arrow Rock where one unit of the Big Muddy NWR is situated. Not much was going on in this quaint little town, it being too early in the year for tourists. The road down to Big Muddy was on the back edge of the town behind the grand Lyceum Theatre.  Trail signs cautioned about water on certain parts, and I only walked a short ways on an elevated dike through open woods which were showing almost no signs of new growth, were still grey and brown, waiting for the right combination of light and warmth before budding visibly. The migration of birds north has not yet begun here.

Big Muddy NWR - MO

EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

Arrow Rock is a village in Saline County, Missouri, United States, located near the Missouri River. The village has important historical significance related to westward expansion, the Santa Fe Trail and 19th century artist George Caleb Bingham. The state’s first state historic site is located here and the entire village was designated a National Historic Landmark by the Department of the Interior, National Park Service in 1963. Many structures within the village are also individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Several locations are also certified sites of the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail and the Santa Fe National Historic Trail.

The town is named for a "prominent flint-bearing bluff on the Missouri River." There are several units of Big Muddy along the Missouri from St. Louis to Kansas City. On their web site, under the heading Resource Management, are the following three priorities: River Restoration Projects, Invasive Plant Removal and Monitoring Pollinators. Management of these noncontiguous refuge units along a river like the Missouri would need plans grounded in contingencies. Again, always, always...water will have its way.

On to Swan Lake NWR near Sumner. There are two large lakes here, Swan and Silver, but the Silver Lake road was closed.

Swan Lake NWR - MO

Mallards, Northern Pintails, Ring-necked and Gadwalls are the common ducks at Swan Lake, along with 50,000 geese, a few swans, gulls and eagles. The emphasis is on maintaining an "inviolate sanctuary" for migratory birds. Hunting is confined to deer and Snow Geese. Fishing is allowed with restrictions. I drove the dozen or so miles around Swan Lake and adjacent fields raising clouds of dust which eventually also settled on my van and seeped into the interior. The landscape was pastel blues and shades of brown.

Sumner, MO, just north of Swan Lake NWR

Lately, my search for a place to sleep is NOT a campground (which are either not open or are deserted this time of year) or a parking lot but rather motels that meet my criteria, those being price, an ergonomic situation for working on the computer and preferably a view. I am getting more and more efficient as I navigate the Internet finding the best deals, deciphering the descriptive language, learning what venues are most open to deals, etc.

Which is why I ended up on the east edge of Kansas City on the 9th floor overlooking the KC Stadium with a view to the west but, unfortunately, one of the worst Internet connections (or something glitchy) not fixed by reboots. I became increasingly frustrated and finally gave up trying to work and started reading The Kings of New York about a wildly successful chess program  in Edward R. Murrow Public School (Brooklyn, NY) and Eliot Weiss, the math teacher who  makes it all happen.